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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Center on Winston Churchill to be Created in D.C.

WASHINGTON --Christopher Sterling has made numerous trips to the
United Kingdom to visit Sir Winston Churchill's former home in Kent, the
Cabinet War Rooms in London and Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire,
where British code breakers deciphered Nazi secrets during World War II.

Soon,
Mr. Sterling, a George Washington University dean and former president
of the Washington Society for Churchill, won't have to travel 3,600
miles to study the mercurial prime minister whose wartime leadership
helped save Western civilization from the Nazis.

That's because
the Chicago-based Churchill Centre and George Washington University are
teaming up to create the only major Churchill facility in the United
States outside the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Mo., site of the
prime minister's famous 1946 Iron Curtain speech.

The National
Churchill Library and Center will be created on the GWU campus, just
blocks from the White House, in the Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library.
It is expected to be both a museum for the general public and a major
academic research center on par with similar facilities in the United
Kingdom. The center will make source material available to academic
researchers -- and celebrate the achievements and personal history of
Churchill, son of a British statesman and an American socialite.

"Winston
Churchill is a part of the story of Britain but also the story of the
world and of America becoming a great world power. He's as much a part
of American history as British," said Churchill Centre director Lee
Pollock.

Churchill, a multifacted man with diverse talents, kept
odd hours and disliked wasting time. Expecting to die early, as his
father did, Churchill set out to accomplish as much as possible in the
early part of his life.

Although he lived to be 90 and
accomplished much more than most, his sense of urgency never left him,
said biographer Paul Reid, who recently completed the third and final
volume of "The Last Lion," the important Churchill biography started by
the late William Manchester. Churchill transformed himself from a young
man in a hurry to an old man in a hurry, Mr. Reid said in a recent
telephone interview.

"He almost worked two days of work into one
day. He lived for the moment because tomorrow may not come, and in
London at war in 1940, that was literally the truth," Mr. Reid said.

A fighter for civilization

His
efforts made him more than an influential world leader. He was a
historian, artist, biographer, war correspondent, inspirational public
speaker, novelist, Nobel Prize winner, father, aristocrat, amateur
bricklayer, British Army officer, oil company lobbyist, member of
Parliament, cabinet secretary, chancellor and minister of munitions.

"Churchill
obviously is recognized as the great iconic war leader and known most
famously for that, but a lot of people are interested in not only that
but the whole dimension of his life," Mr. Pollock said.

That
includes pronouncements history would come to view as wrongheaded. For
example, he proposed forced labor for "mental defectives" and advocated
for sterilization of the "feeble-minded" -- people he saw as a threat to
virility.

The flaws aren't lost even on those who both study and adore Mr. Churchill.

"He
could be rude, he drank too much, and he didn't exercise, but at the
end of the day, I'm back to this: He saved Western civilization.
Churchill fought for Western civilization -- for the literature, the
art, the ideas, the mercy and forgiveness," Mr. Reid said. "He fought
for the right for people to worship as they pleased and to speak as they
pleased, for the freedom of education and intellectual pursuit and for
everything we hold dear."

Without the Churchill-led British intervention, Adolph Hitler would have been unstoppable, he said.

Washington
scholars and tourists soon will have a place to learn about the late
prime minister's work ethic, his prolific landscape painting, his
troublesome speech impediment and his propensity for wearing "siren
suits" or zippered rompers that, though lacking in style, made for quick
dressing.

The siren suits and ubiquitous hats will draw tourists
who like to see objects from famous people's everyday lives, but it's
the documents that will interest serious scholars, Mr. Reid said.

"A
scholar wants to examine the record; tourists aren't going to do that,"
he said. "Artifacts are important, but you go to a library to study,
not to look at old shoes."

Attracting collections

The National Churchill Library and Center will offer both, including some documents and artifacts that have yet to surface.

The
hope is that the creation of the Washington facility will inspire
American Churchill devotees -- the "Churchillians" -- to contribute or
loan letters and documents they've held in private collections for
decades but have been unwilling to send to overseas curators. They might
be more willing to contribute them to Washington than London, Mr. Reid
said.

"You have no idea who has what. Who knows if someone's estate might leave valuable Churchill letters?" he asked.

Some items are already beginning to materialize, Mr. Pollock said.

"We're
getting significant donations from members who say, 'It's time for my
collection to have a great home somewhere it can be accessible to lots
and lots of people.' "

The center expects to display Churchill
writings, photographs, memorabilia, biographies and original documents
useful to scholars of law, international affairs, history, public policy
and more.

The center could draw prominent Churchill scholars to George Washington University.

"Right now there's no particular reason for them to come here, but there will be," Mr. Sterling said.

The
Churchill Library and Center will include an exhibition gallery, a
reading room, space for lectures and receptions, and computer terminals
that will provide electronic access to collections of the Churchill
Archives Centre.

Churchill scholars and enthusiasts who want to
view primary source documents currently have to travel to Britain to
find much of what they're looking for, said Mr. Sterling, professor of
media and public affairs.

"Churchill is a serious hobby with me,
not my profession," he said. Still, he's made several trips overseas to
pursue his interest.

Now he'll be able to pursue his passion without leaving GWU's neighborhood of Foggy Bottom.

Lectures
and programming will begin in the fall, and the physical space -- 6,000
renovated square feet on the first floor of the library -- is slated to
open in 2015.

Between now and then, the Churchill Centre is
campaigning to raise $8 million for its share of the renovations, to
create exhibits for visitors and to create endowments to provide
salaries for a curator and a Churchill scholar in the department of
history.

The center hasn't revealed how much has been collected so
far, but Mr. Pollock, the executive director, said fundraising efforts
are on track.

Churchill descendants are pleased to have the facility built in the center of American government.

"My
great-grandfather rejoiced in his American ancestry. He visited the
United States often, had many close American friends and greatly admired
the dynamism and energy of what he called the 'Great Republic,' "
Randolph Churchill said.

He said the center will draw attention to
the example his great-grandfather set through his courage and
determination at a time the survival of democracy was in doubt. That
leadership remains an example to political leaders everywhere, and it's
something that the new library and center will highlight for visitors.

"The
relationship between America and Britain remains unique among major
nations in world history and is deeply rooted in our shared language,
culture and experience and -- most importantly for the fate of the world
-- in our alliances during two world wars. Interest in Winston
Churchill in America has never been higher across the political spectrum
and in all branches of government," Randolph Churchill said.

The
proximity of the center to the White House is especially appropriate and
welcome because Winston Churchill probably spent more time as a guest
of the White House than almost any other world leader, he said.

"I
can easily see him taking a stroll with cigar in hand to the corner of
22nd and H to see the new exhibition place himself," he said.

This website is dedicated to a renewal of Christian culture. It is inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, a valiant defender of Christian civilization, who believed "we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries." With Churchill, we believe that a "fraternal association" of the English-speaking peoples must "for their own safety and for the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.”